Jul
17
7:15 am - This schedule has worked out amazingly well so far. Not only am I easilly getting up after 4.5 hours right as my alarm goes, but with two naps, I feel as if I’ve had a full night’s sleep. I remember my initial adaptation phase took over a week and I was lethargic and tired the whole time. I am happy and relieved that I’m not experiencing that again.
It appears that after a relatively short break (4 weeks) from strict polyphasic, a once polyphasic sleeper can quickly re-adapt to a new schedule with minimal negative effects. Yay!
Recap of yesterday (7/16/08):
Woke up: 5:00 am (4.5 hrs sleep)
Nap 1: 10:40 am (20 min)
Nap 2: 5:20 pm (2o min)Total 5.2 hrs
2 Responses to “Free and Clear”
Hello!
What are you doing to help you get in REM faster? I am also trying the Everyman sleep schedule.Is it harder for you to fall asleep during the day? Thanks in advance for any tips that can help me out!
By retrospect416 on Jul 19, 2008
Hi!
Great to hear you’re getting started with the Everyman system (I cannot say enough good things about it).
The main thing to do to get to REM sleep faster is to fall asleep faster. I remember in the beginning stages of my adaptation, I didn’t get much/any REM in naps, however, as I kept with my schedule, my body eventually got used to sleeping during the day and provided me w/ dreams and most importantly, restful naps. One important factor was committing to lying down for the full nap regardless of how tired I was. Not only does this help train your body to be ready for naps at specific times of the day, but there were numerous occurances where I was sure I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep and yet somehow drifted off in less than 5 minutes. (If I had gone with my first thoughts, I would have gotten up and not bothered with what I figured to be a waste the time - thus missing out on a valuable nap)
As per your second question, yes, falling asleep during the day was probably the hardest part of adapting to the schedule. A few things that helped me fall asleep during the day included an eye cover of some sort, needed to block out the light, earplugs or headphones w/ placebo sleep track - block out noises that would otherwise make it hard to fall asleep or wake me up mid-nap, and a sleeping bag - I just feel more comfortable when I’m cozy!
Please make sure to check out my earlier post “How to fall asleep quickly” for details on 10 tactics that have helped me immensely.
Good luck to you! Questions and comments are always welcome!
By Andrew on Jul 19, 2008